The Rules of the Renegades
by Curlscat
Summary: In one day, Allie and Emma's normal life is turned upside-down. It turns out they're not human, and on top of that, magical creatures are real- and they're out for blood. The Scarlet Hand is free, and this time there's no barrier to keep them from taking over the world. The girls go on a journey with Aunt Daphne for answers while the adults start fighting back.
1. Rule 1: Know Your Situation

**AN~ So. A new fic. Yay! 113**

**This is a next-gen story, which means it'll be focusing on Alison and Emma, though the characters we know and love will be featured a lot, too. I won't update this too regularly until Stuck on You is finished, but it will be floating around existing.**

**Warnings: THIS IS A STORY ABOUT A WAR. THERE WILL BE DEATH AND THERE WILL BE A HEAVY AMOUNT OF UGLINESS BY PEOPLE. IT'S RATED T FOR A REASON, DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH PEOPLE NOT BEING GOOD DEEP DOWN.**

**Disclaimer: Alison and Emma wouldn't EXIST if I'd written the books.**

* * *

The words were still ringing in Aly's ear when the door slammed: _"You're a fairy princess."_

And even though she heard her sister squealing in excitement, Aly couldn't quite wrap her head around this. Her mother had just told her she wasn't human. She wasn't imagining things.

Oh, she wished she was. But there were a pair of very real fleshy bug-wings sticking out of her back, and they kept _twitching_.

It took her father yelling to snap her back into reality, because he only used his serious voice when things were really, really bad. The rest of the time her father was all smiles. In fact, the last time she could remember him being serious was the time she and Parker had run away together.

Now, though, his voice had lost all traces of humor as he shouted her mother's name up the stairs.

The three Grimm women ran down the steps in an urgent cluster. Aly's wings were streaming out behind her.

At the bottom of the steps, Aly's dad stood with his hands against the hallway walls, panting. "They're gone," he said, ignoring the girls. "Sabrina, the castle is empty."

* * *

Emma was furious. This largely stemmed from the fact that she was being ignored. Her house was full of people, most of whom she'd never met before, all talking over her, and nobody had even answered the question "What castle?"

She was sitting next to Aly on the couch, watching as a very pregnant Aunt Daphne bustled through the room carrying a bunch of necklaces and sticks. Aunt Daphne always wore a lot of jewelry, but this seemed like overkill to Emma.

Aly was trying to play the patient "good child," the way she normally did when Emma started to squirm, but it was sort of ruined by the way she kept fluttering her wings all over the place.

The weirdest thing about all the people in the house was that none of them even blinked when they saw Aly's wings.

That is, until one of them turned into a pig.

If she hadn't been so frustrated by the way nobody was answering her questions, Emma would have been excited. Real magic! In her house! In her family! But excitement could wait until her curiosity was satisfied.

Somebody turned on the TV to the news, but it was doing a funny thing where it showed about five different news channels at once on the same screen. Their TV was too old and boring to do things like that.

Emma wasn't sure why they'd turned on the TV until she saw the dragon fly across the screen.

The newscaster underneath it was saying, "Pedestrians in the western New Jersey area were stunned today by the sight of what at first was thought to be a large parade float overhead-" the picture switched to a burning field- "until it began torching crops. People are whispering that this might be a dragon, though we have no confirmation yet."

"So they're attacking," a quiet voice said.

Emma looked up and saw her aunt Red, a very quiet woman who wasn't actually related to them. "Who's attacking?" she asked, not really expecting an answer anymore.

"The Scarlet Hand," Aunt Red said. She gave Alison and Emma a pitying look and said, "I understand why your parents kept this a secret, but right now I really wish you two knew what was going on. Things would be so much easier." She pinched her lips. "I don't have time to explain it now, though, girls. I'm sorry."

"Someone _will_ explain it eventually?" Aly asked.

Aunt Red nodded.

"All right," Aly said, "I can live with that."

Emma glared at her sister, but then her eyes snapped back to the TV- a beautiful woman with blonde hair and arched eyebrows had appeared on all the screens.

"Hello, humans," the woman said with a smile, "This is the day your lives are changed forever- this is the day Everafters take our rightful place as rulers."

* * *

When Sabrina saw the newscast, she knew what she had to do.

She'd been calling people ever since Puck had told her the news, because this was big. They'd need everyone. Now she had a few more calls to make. These would be even less fun.

She pressed her lips together and dialed the number she hadn't been able to make herself delete, even after sixteen years.

While the phone rang, she cursed herself under her breath. Having someone go to check on the castle was supposed to _prevent_ this from happening! Giving Morgan and Mordred a _phone_ was supposed to keep things safe! They were supposed to have _warning_ if there was going to be a breach in their defenses! How had this _happened_?

There was a click as someone picked up the other end of the line. "Hello?"

"Hi, may I speak to Bradley?" Sabrina said hurriedly, before she lost her nerve.

"Speaking," the voice on the other end said.

Wonderful. She'd hoped for a chance to compose herself before she actually talked to him.

"Bradley, it's Sabrina," she said, keeping her voice as steady as she could.

Across the room, Puck gave her a quizzical look. She shook her head. She'd explain later.

On the phone, Bradley was saying, "This is a surprise. I haven't spoken to you since-"

"I know," Sabrina interrupted, "But not right now, all right? I need you to turn on your TV."

"Wha- I'm having a _barbecue_, Sabrina," Bradley said. "Can't it wait?"

"No," Sabrina said, looking at the TV, where Moth was still talking. She didn't know how the b- _witch_had gotten out, but she had, and apparently she'd joined the Scarlet Hand during her stint in prison.

There was silence for a moment, and then Bradley said, "Oh, lord."

"I know," Sabrina said.

"That's one of your fairies, isn't it?" Bradley asked. "And- you told me it was safe!"

"It was," Sabrina said with a grimace.

"What happened?" Bradley demanded.

"We don't know yet," Sabrina said. "It just happened today. We had all the bad ones imprisoned, and someone broke into our prison within the past week."

"Oh dear," Bradley said.

Sabrina cringed. "Listen, Bradley, I... I need you to do me a favor," she said.

"What's that?" Bradley asked, sounding more uncomfortable than she'd thought he could sound (Bradley, who had always been solid, even when she told him her family was friends with Snow White and the Big Bad Wolf).

"I'm gonna need you to be calm," Sabrina said. "And prepare. Everyone else is going to be panicking when this gets around, and things are going to be a mess. You know how to protect yourself from a lot of this, and not a lot of other people do. You're going to need to be solid, and remember that not all of us are evil. And you're going to need to figure out how to keep yourself safe." She proceeded to give him a list of things that would probably be useful for him to have or know, and ended with, "It's going to be bad. I don't know how bad, but the only reason they didn't destroy anything in the last war is because they were stuck here. Now they're out, and they're angry."

"All right," Bradley said, and she was going to hang up when he said, "Be careful, okay?"

Sabrina almost laughed. He was worried about _her_? She'd only told him _half_ the tight scrapes she'd gotten into. But instead of telling him she could take care of herself, she said, "You too," and hung up.

"Well, for the first time talking in sixteen years, it went pretty well," Sabrina told her husband, who'd come up next to her, brightly. She handed him the phone. "Have anyone you want to call?"

Puck laughed. "I haven't had any human friends in centuries." He gave her the phone back. "Call Marsha."

Sabrina sighed and dialed another number, wishing she could go out and just _fight_ something. It was going to be a long afternoon.

* * *

"Come on, you two, we need to get going," Aunt Daphne said, shaking Aly awake.

She and Emma had both fallen asleep on the couch sometime after the people they didn't recognize made food and passed it out, chattering all the while about weapons and strategies and things like that. Aly didn't understand any of it.

"Get going where?" Emma asked, pushing her long blonde hair out of her face.

"I'll explain in the car," Aunt Daphne said. "Your mom already packed your bags for you, but we need to get out of here before we're traced."

"Traced?" Emma asked, but she got up and followed their aunt to the car along with Aly.

Aunt Daphne loaded her very pregnant self into the little silver car with a "whoof" and turned the engine over. The woman was only about five months pregnant, but she was _enormous_. Not that Aunt Daphne had ever been too thin to begin with, but apparently having twins made you swell up like a balloon. Aly didn't think she wanted kids if that was what happened to you.

Aly was already in the front seat next to her, ready to give a smug look to Emma, who was technically old enough to sit in the front, but not allowed if Aly got there first, but when she turned, Emma wasn't in the back of the car.

She was standing outside, giving Aunt Daphne her stubbornest look. "I'm not getting into this car until you _tell me what's going on_."

Aunt Daphne sighed and said, "I'll tell you, I promise. But we have to get going, and it'll take too long to explain everything to you."

Emma glared but climbed into the car, and Aunt Daphne left the driveway without turning on her headlights.

They were halfway out of town when Aly realized something. "Why aren't mom and dad coming with us?" she asked.

"They have to stay here," Aunt Daphne said tersely.

"Why?" Emma asked, leaning into the front of the car.

"They have things to do here," Aunt Daphne said. "I'm getting you to safety, hopefully."

"Why you?" Emma demanded.

Ally rolled her eyes. "'Cause she's _pregnant_, dimwit. They want to keep the twins safe."

"That, yes, and because I have something to check on," Aunt Daphne said. "And it's far enough out of the way that they could send you with me without worrying too much."

"What is it?" Emma asked. "What you're checking on? For that matter, why are we leaving in the middle of the night? Isn't it more suspicious driving without your headlights? What are 'Everafters'? How can Aly make her wings go away? They're hitting me in the face. Why was everyone inside talking about a war? Who was that lady on TV?"

Emma's questions continued like that for a few minutes. When she slowed down, finally, Aunt Daphne said, "Let me start from the beginning."

* * *

The story Aunt Daphne told was a long one: The Brothers Grimm wrote down history, and then because people from fairy tales- _Everafters_, Aly reminded herself- were being persecuted in Europe, Wilhelm Grimm brought them to America, where they built a town.

But humans started moving in there, too, and the Everafters got upset. Some of them got so upset that they decided to destroy humanity and take over the world. So Wilhelm Grimm built a barrier around the town with magic, so no Everafters could leave as long as there was a living member of his family inside the town.

A couple centuries passed with a bunch of Aly's ancestors having adventures in the town, and then her grandpa got a girlfriend who was an Everafter. Her great uncle Jake (one of the weirder members of the family who didn't show up too often, an old guy in a trench coat who had a reputation for doing lots of things that almost got him killed) figured out a way to get the girlfriend- Goldilocks- out, but it released a bunch of monsters, too, and Aly's great-grandpa got killed.

When that happened, their grandpa moved out of town, where he met grandma Veronica. When she got pregnant with Aly's mom, he vowed to keep her safe by never telling her about Everafters.

It backfired, bad.

Some group called the Scarlet Hand kidnapped Aly's grandparents, and her mom and Aunt Daphne spent a year and a half bouncing around awful foster homes until their grandma found them and took them in. She told them about the family history, but then she got kidnapped, too- by a giant. Mom and Aunt Daphne got her back and met Dad, who it turned out, was actually a king.

It turned out that the people who were mad at humans to begin with were coming back in a big way, and they were trying to start a war. Mom, Dad, and Aunt Daphne played a really big part in keeping that from happening, and in the process they locked most of the really bad Everafters inside a castle less than a mile from Aly's house, and let all the other Everafters out. And then everything was fine for almost thirty years.

But now the Scarlet Hand was free.

* * *

Once the story was finished, Emma demanded, "So why didn't Mom and Dad _tell_ us all this?" She had more questions, but this was was the most pressing at the moment.

She'd probably have believed this even if Aly hadn't had a ginormous pair of wings sticking out of her back. It explained a lot about her parents, especially mom.

Aunt Daphne sighed. "A lot of reasons. I didn't really approve, but it did make sense. Your mom- well, neither of your parents really had the best childhoods, and your mom wanted you to have a chance to be normal. Your dad thought it was a good idea. Besides, they couldn't tell you until you could keep a secret, and Emma... well, you're about the worst secret-keeper this family's had."

Emma wanted to be offended, but she couldn't quite manage it.

"Why didn't they tell _me_, then?" Aly demanded.

Aunt Daphne shrugged. "Something about fairness and favoritism," she said.

"So where are we going?" Emma asked. There wasn't much point in dwelling on their parents' stupidity.

"Canada," Aunt Daphne said.

"How come?"

"There are only three people living who know the spell that takes down the barrier," Aunt Daphne said. "One of them's me. So we have to go check on the other two- neither of them would share it willingly, so we have to make sure they're safe."

"Do you know where in Canada we're going?" Aly asked. "It's kind of a big place."

"Very far north," Aunt Daphne said. "The woman we're going to see doesn't like people, and she wanted to get as far from them as possible."

"Who are we going to see?" Emma demanded.

"The most powerful witch alive," Aunt Daphne said. "Baba Yaga."


	2. Rule 2: Travel Safely

**AN~ I just ended the chapter on a weird note because it wasn't going anywhere. We're gonna be seeing some other people's POVs later, but for a bit it's just gonna be Allie and Emma.**

Axel Treehorn: **this one will be pretty intense... at least, that's the plan. Not sure how good I'll be at being intense for a whole fic.**

Fangirl26: **Thanks so much!**

Guest 1:** Calm down child.**

Guest 2:** I did!**

* * *

Alison looked at herself in the motel mirror. Short, neat blonde hair that curled just a little at the ends, her dad's blue-green shifting eyes, her mom's long, straight nose and high cheekbones, a pointed chin that didn't come from either of her parents, porcelain skin on her tall, thin frame... everything was normal except for the enormous wings sticking out of her back.

Aunt Daphne hadn't been able to figure out how to make them go away, and Allie certainly didn't know what to do with the things, so they were just _there_. The whole night.

The only upside was that it had meant she got a bed to herself in the hotel room.

Everything else though, was making Allie _angry_._  
_

Her parents hadn't told her she wasn't human. For _fourteen years_ they'd let her think she was completely normal and kept this huge secret from her. And they'd gotten everyone else in on it, too. She'd recognized a lot of the people at the house yesterday. And then she'd learned that none of them were human.

Her entire life had been a lie.

And her parents didn't even have time to _apologize_ to her._  
_

Granted, they'd been kind of busy saving the world, from what Aunt Daphne said, but still. They should have taken the time to _explain_ all this to her. Preferably _before_ all this crap happened!

There was a knock on the door. "Allie?" Emma's voice filtered through the not-wood of the cheap motel bathroom door. "Aunt Daphne's on the phone with dad. Do you want to talk with him before I do?"

To be honest, no she did _not_ want to talk to either of her parents. She wanted to give them the silent treatment until they realized how wrong they'd been. Or yell at them. But Allie was practical enough to realize that if she didn't want to go through the next who knows how long with a pair of wings getting in her way, she'd better ask her dad what to do about them.

So Allie gave her face a quick wash and headed for her aunt and the old-fashioned landline phone between the two beds (what was this? 2014?), wings streaming behind her. She sat on the bed she'd claimed for herself, making a face as it creaked. This was a really cheap motel.

Aunt Daphne put up a finger, signaling Allie to wait, as Emma laid claim to the bathroom with gusto and the adult kept talking: "-think you should be here. Yeah, I know this is important, but- they're your _kids_, Puck! They need you! Well, at least they'd die knowing you _cared_ about them! And there's no guarantee things will be safer up here anyway. Huh? Oh, no, I haven't heard from her. I know. I've been trying every way I can. Have you found Bunny yet?"

There was silence on this end of the line, then Aunt Daphne said, "Oh. Oh dear." She gave Allie a tight smile and said, "you want to talk to Allie now? She's having some trouble with her wings."

Apparently, her dad said yes, because Aunt Daphne handed Allie the phone.

"Alleycat?"

Suddenly, Allie found herself close to tears. Hearing her dad's voice calling her by that nickname, no matter how angry she was at him, knowing she might not see him for a very long time, knowing how dangerous things were, gave her a feeling of relief. Here was someone, finally, who might know what to do about her wings. Thank God.

"Hi, Daddy," she said once she'd gotten control of herself, not noticing that this was the first time she'd referred to her father by that title since she was six and decided that only babies like Emma called their parents mommy and daddy.

"Daphne says you can't make your wings go away," he said, and Allie could hear the smile in his voice.

"It's not funny, dad!" Allie wailed. "They're huge and they're gross and they keep getting in the way and I rolled on them last night and it _hurt_!"

"I'm just so proud you've got them," her dad said. "We didn't know when it would happen, 'cause you're only half-fairy, but I was really excited to have something to do with you again. It's been a while since, we, you know..."

Allie didn't finish his sentence. Her dad wasn't one for emotions, and she and her mom had decided a long time ago that helping him be sweet was enabling. She did understand, but still.

Plus it didn't change the fact that they _weren't_ going to be dealing with this together and he hadn't warned her about it. "Dad. I just want to know how to make them go away."

"What? You're not interested in why you only got them now? Your mom would be ashamed."

Allie wanted to stay mad at him, but she found herself smiling and she admitted, "All right, maybe I'm kind of curious."

"Fairies aren't born with wings," her dad said. "We get them when we're ten or so. It makes things easier for the parents if their kids can only move in two dimensions. You, my little diva, were kind of an experiment. We didn't know when you'd get your wings, or if you'd get any at all. I can't remember the last time any half fairies were born."

That was pretty cool, but it didn't really help. "Great, Dad, thanks, now how do I make them go away?"

"You kind of flex your back," her dad said. "Arch it one way and then another."

Allie tried this. To her utter surprise, after a few times, it worked. Her wings were gone. She could go back to wearing a normal shirt. Thank God.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem," her dad said. "It gets easier with practice. It's how you get them back out, too."

Allie had absolutely no interest in getting her wings back out, but she didn't want to say that. She wasn't _that_ mad at her dad (and she couldn't get the thought out of her head that she might never see him again if something went bad). So she said, "I don't think I'll use them much until I learn how to fly, but thanks for the tip."

"I wish I could show you, kiddo," her dad said, and she could hear that he meant it. "Sorry all this exploded on you."'

"I can't believe you didn't _tell_ us," Allie muttered.

"Yeah, in hindsight, probably not the best decision," her dad agreed. "And we should have seen it coming. I mean, your grandparents didn't tell your mom, and look how well that turned out."

"How?" Allie asked.

"Ask your aunt to tell you," her dad said. "Listen, my little diva, I've gotta go. Tell your sister I'm really sorry I didn't get to talk to her, but your mom needs me."

"Okay, bye," Allie said. "Love you."

"Love you too, princess."

There was a click on the other end of the line, and Allie put the phone down.

Emma emerged from the bathroom, her long blonde waves hanging down her back and dripping. "Did he hang up already? I wanted to talk!"

"He sounded busy," Allie said with a shrug, trying for nonchalance. He'd actually sounded pretty urgent when he hung up, but she didn't need Emma thinking she was scared.

"All right, girls, we need to go," Aunt Daphne said, standing with a groan. "We've got a long drive ahead of us, and who knows what we'll meet on the way."

That didn't sound good. Allie found herself suddenly very fond of this cruddy little motel room with its creaky beds, peeling wallpaper, and outdated electronics. It at least didn't have mysterious _whats_ coming to attack her.

And yet she piled into the car with her sister, and they continued heading north.

* * *

Nothing really seemed different. It was kind of disappointing. Emma had expected to see burning cities and people fighting in the streets. Things were just... quiet, though.

A little too quiet. A few years ago, Emma and her family had taken a trip to Niagara Falls, and they'd gone this way. It had been _packed_. Now, though, on the same highway, there were almost no cars. It was a little creepy, to be honest.

"Where is everybody?" she asked.

"Hiding, probably," Allie muttered. "Because they're _smart_."

"Hey, we _can't_ hide!" Emma protested. "We're on an important mission!"

Allie rolled her eyes. "What are you, six?"

Emma stuck her tongue out at her older sister in lieu of answering.

Aunt Daphne laughed from the front seat and said, "Your mom is right- you two _are _a lot like she and I were at your age."

"I thought you and mom were close," Emma said.

"We were- _are_," Aunt Daphne said (it was true. They talked on the phone nearly every day), "but that doesn't mean we didn't argue all the time. Especially after we found out about Everafters."

"How come?" Emma asked.

"I thought everything to do with magic was amazing, and your mom didn't like it. She didn't think it was safe. She was right, of course, but so was I." Aunt Daphne smiled at both of them. "It's beautiful, but in the wrong hands it's dangerous."

Allie rolled her eyes. "Power is neither good nor bad, it's the people that use it that determine it. I saw that in like fifteen action movies."

"There's a reason thing like that get parroted a lot," Aunt Daphne said mildly. "It's because they're true. And because people don't listen if they just hear them once."

"I thought it was because movies liked people to think they had a deep meaningful message," Allie muttered.

Emma wondered for the millionth time why her sister had become such a sourpuss. She'd used to be _fun_. They'd played together all the time, and talked to each other about everything. But then Allie had gone into high school, and suddenly she was too old for all that stuff. Emma, who was only in sixth grade (not even in middle school yet, as Allie's friends had reminded her), had been left behind in childhood.

And now Allie was too old to even get excited about _magic_.

Even if it was scary dangerous magic that was trying to take over the world.

With a screech, Aunt Daphne turned the car off the highway and onto a thin dirt track, sending them hurtling down about eight feet before they stopped, inches from a sharp curve in the almost-a-road and a particularly solid-looking tree.

"What was that for?" Allie demanded, half-shouting.

"Shh," Aunt Daphne said, holding a hand up.

She sounded so serious that Emma and Allie both froze.

From overhead came a sound that Emma had never heard before, somewhere between and elephant's trumpet and an eagle's cry, and then there was a sound that she _did_ recognize- breaks squealing, shattering glass, and an explosion. Then a whole lot of crackling, and the temperature went up about ten degrees.

Aunt Daphne had tears in her eyes as she started the car forward again, very slowly, down the dirt track.

They rode in silence for a long time, through the deep woods. Emma looked out the back window and saw an orange light flickering through the trees.

"What was that?" Allie asked eventually.

"A dragon," Aunt Daphne said. "A very angry dragon."

"What- what did it do?" Emma asked, not entirely sure she wanted to know.

"I think you can guess," Aunt Daphne said softly.

She could. She'd seen a car accident a few years ago, and it had sounded a lot like that. She knew because she'd had nightmares about it for the next week. And there had been fire. She didn't think those people would make it where they were going.

"But how did you know it was there?" Allie demanded. "You just swerved all of a sudden!"

Emma stared at her sister. People had just- people were probably _not alive_ and all her sister cared about was how Aunt Daphne knew to keep them alive? What was _wrong_ with her sister?

"I saw the shadow," Aunt Daphne said. "I've seen it before. I recognized it."

"When did you see it?" Emma asked.

"In the first Everafter War," Aunt Daphne said. "They attacked our fortress and killed someone I cared about."

"I'm sorry," Emma said.

Aunt Daphne smiled sadly. "It was a long time ago."

Allie looked over at Aunt Daphne and asked, "Tell us about her? Him?"

Aunt Daphne told them about the person- it was a her, their great uncle's fiancee. By the time she was finished, it was lunch time, and they'd pulled over at a little diner (the dirt track had dumped them onto a paved road in a town that reminded Emma of home- small, friendly, and unchanging).

They sat down inside, and Emma noticed for the first time how deserted this whole place looked. Not just the diner, which only had about six customers even though it was the middle of what would be the lunch rush back at the Blue Plate Special, but the whole town. She'd only seen one person outside, and less than ten other cars.

"What can I get for ya?" the waitress asked. She appeared to be the only waitress around. "I'm sorry if things take a little longer than usual, a lot of our staff didn't show up today, so we're a little short on hands."

They ordered, and before the waitress could leave, Aunt Daphne asked, "Could you give me directions to the highway? There was a... a really bad problem, so we had to get off, and I'm not sure where we are anymore."

"You got here from the _highway_?" the waitress asked, her eyes wide. "That's ages away!"

"We know," Allie muttered.

"Maybe heading a bit more north?" Aunt Daphne steered the conversation back in the right direction with a smile. "We're heading to Canada."

"Is it safe there?" the waitress asked.

Aunt Daphne shook her head. "I don't think it's safe anywhere. But I have a friend up north, and it's important that I check on her."

"I could get there myself," the waitress said apologetically, "but I'm awful at giving directions. I'd tell you things like 'turn left at the blue spruce and drive until the road gets all twisty.' I'll get Eddie in the kitchen to write you down something."

"Thanks very much," Aunt Daphne said with a smile.

"No problem," the waitress said, heading back to the kitchen.

Their food arrived, along with the cook, a shorter time later than they expected.

He smiled at them tightly and said, "You need directions?"

Aunt Daphne nodded. "I wasn't expecting you to come out yourself, though. I just thought I'd get a paper."

The cook dropped his smile and shrugged. "Not like there's much for me to do right now." He gestured at the nearly empty restaurant ruefully.

Allie, who was always hungry, was digging into her food with the single-minded intensity she turned on most tasks that she considered worth her time. Emma continued to listen to the cook's directions, though. Just in case something happened.

Not that, y'know, she'd be able to really _get_ her and Allie anywhere. She was eleven, for crying out loud! What could an eleven-year-old do? Well, read a map better than Allie, for one thing, but it wasn't like she could drive them anywhere or anything.

Allie could probably pass for old enough to drive, but Emma wasn't sure she'd trust her sister behind the wheel of a car. Especially if they'd have to dodge more dragons.

Oh gosh, those dragons. Those _people_...

Emma couldn't believe she'd pushed it out of her head for this long.

She clenched her fist, and promised herself that no matter what happened, she'd make sure that dragon paid. Even if she was only eleven and had no idea how to fight dragons or anything like that. Maybe she'd have to wait years. But she couldn't live in a world where that was something that happened without a punishment.

So she was going to do something about it. No matter what.


	3. Rule 3: Learn to Deal With Rough Stuff

**AN~ This is not as popular a story as my others, which makes sense because it's not focusing on Puck and Sabrina or anything, but I do love it so I'm updating it.  
**

**ILOVESG: Thanks very much!**

* * *

It took them far longer to get to Canada than it should have. In theory, they should have made it across the border in two days, max, and to Baba Yaga's in another three or so, easy driving. But Aunt Daphne got tired easily, and problems kept popping up like dragons, or destroyed roads, or getting lost. So, a week later, they were still on the road.

People had started to show back up in places around the fourth day, though they looked scared and there weren't as many as there should have been.

Right now, they were three of about twenty customers in the Applebee's, all of whom were probably traveling to get to relatives' houses, or to check on friends, the way they were. The TVs would normally have been playing sports highlights, but each and every one was turned to the news. All the people in the restaurant had their eyes glued to the screens.

The current news segment ended, and a voice over announced a special news bulletin about the current state of affairs.

"That's grandma!" Emma shrieked, pointing at the screen.

Alison shrank in her seat as a few people turned to stare at the really loud eleven-year-old who knew the woman on TV.

But yeah, it definitely was her grandmother.

Not that Veronica had never been on TV before. She was politically active, on the New York local station all the time campaigning for minority rights. But this was a national station. That was new.

"Hello," the anchorman said. "I'm here with Veronica Grimm today to talk about the strange phenomena that have been sweeping the world."

Veronica smiled at the anchor and the camera both.

"Now, Veronica, you're here because you know what's going on with these 'Everafters,' as they're calling themselves. What can you tell us about them?"

"They're not all evil, to start with," Veronica said. "Well, _we're_ not all evil, I should say."

"We?" the anchorman asked. "You're one of them?"

Veronica nodded. "It was necessary, during the last war, to make my family into Everafters. We're still the same as we were, just with a slightly longer lifespan now."

"How long?" the anchorman asked. "I'm sure everyone in the audience would like to know exactly what it's like to be... well, not human."

"As long as I choose, unless someone kills me," Veronica said.

The conversation continued, and Allie could see the people in the diner being won over, bit by bit. That was the effect her grandmother had on people. She _believed_ everything she said so much that people listening couldn't help but believe her, too. And if she said not all Everafters were evil, then anyone who watched this would start to agree with her. Or at least question what they'd thought before.

Allie knew most of what was being said already, but she was still interested. After all, this was about her, wasn't it? She was an Everafter.

And if certain people hadn't decided to keep that a secret from her, she'd already know most of this stuff.

Really, considering Aunt Daphne's stories, it was hugely hypocritical for Allie's mom to have done something like that. What was she thinking?

Allie started to burn with anger again, and she stopped paying attention to the news so much. She hadn't even heard from her parents in days. Aunt Daphne hadn't thought it was safe to call, just in case someone was magicking the phone lines or something.

She took a deep breath. This wasn't going to accomplish anything. And when she lost her cool, her body started doing weird fairy things without her permission. That was the last thing she needed. Especially not in public.

On the way out of the restaurant, Allie overheard people discussing what had been on the news. Aunt Daphne looked please, which was confusing, because half the people seemed to be saying that it had to be a bunch of crap.

Emma apparently thought so, too, because once they were outside she asked, "Why do you look so happy? It's not like what Grandma said made any difference."

"But they're _talking_ about it," Aunt Daphne pointed out. "Which means they're _thinking_ about it, which means some of them at least will start to question whether we're all evil."

"Which is... good?" Allie asked. It didn't seem like much to her.

Aunt Daphne smiled at her knowingly. "It's a first step, girls. We all have to start somewhere."

* * *

Another hotel, this time in Canada, finally, and Aunt Daphne was bustling them up to get packed and out, even though it was barely light out.

Emma rubbed her eyes and glared at her aunt and her sister, both of whom were up and about. Allie, at least, had the excuse of being one of those hideous morning people who woke up at five thirty in the morning to do things like shower and go for a run or whatever. Aunt Daphne, though, was just being a jerk, and didn't even have the excuse that she didn't like sleep (Emma had heard stories, and she and Allie had had a game, back when Allie was fun, to see who could wake Aunt Daphne up fastest). They hadn't stopped for the night until nearly midnight the day before, and Emma was _tired_.

"It's too early for this," she accused.

"You're just lazy," Allie sing-songed, the eternal mantra of those who don't understand people who like _nights_ and not sunrises.

"Sorry, sweetie, but I want to get to Baba Yaga's as soon as possible," Aunt Daphne said. "We should have been there days ago, and I'm worried. I really wanted to be there last night."

Emma grumbled, but rolled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom to brush away her morning breath.

They _did_ stop for breakfast a little over an hour on the road, small consolation that it was, and Emma learned that in Canada, Canadian bacon _was_, in fact, just called bacon.

Allie didn't seem to find this nearly as interesting as Emma did, and Aunt Daphne was too buried in her coffee to pay much attention.

"Isn't that bad for babies?" Allie asked. "Caffeine?"

Aunt Daphne shrugged. "Getting into car accidents because their mommies fell asleep at the wheel is worse for babies."

Emma stopped eating to gape, wide-eyed, at her aunt. "Maybe I'll walk the rest of the way," she muttered.

"The coffee will keep that from happening," Aunt Daphne promised. "Besides, we'll be there before lunch. I can make it that long."

"Promise?" Emma asked warily.

Aunt Daphne laughed. "Yes, I promise."

"I still don't think you should have the caffeinated stuff," Allie muttered. "What if your baby gets brain damage or something?"

"I'll take the risk," Aunt Daphne said softly.

"Okay, but if your kids come out with anemia or something, don't blame me," Allie said.

"They debunked that," Aunt Daphne said, and she took a long drag of her coffee, effectively ending the conversation.

Allie didn't look too happy, but she dug into her french toast instead of muttering under her breath, which was pretty good as far as Emma was concerned. Allie could be a pain in the butt when she wanted to be. And any time she didn't want to be was a good time as far as Emma was concerned.

They headed back to the car for what was hopefully their final day of driving endlessly for a while, and began their journey.

The farther they got from Ottowa, the less livable the area looked. It wasn't just that they were in the wilderness (Emma was used to wilderness, living in a small town in upstate New York with more trees than people), but there was a lot of devastation. Trees were knocked over, the road was a mess, and it looked like there'd been a fire recently. As they drove, Aunt Daphne looked more and more tense, and Emma didn't think it was from the caffeine.

Finally, the machine on the dashboard made a beeping noise, and Aunt Daphne stopped the car at a section of burned-out trees.

"Your friend lives here?" Allie asked dubiously.

"It might not be as bad as it looks," Aunt Daphne said, hauling herself out of the car with an 'oohf.'

Emma was with Allie on this one, and personally didn't put much stock in Aunt Daphne's magic GPS, but either way she wasn't letting her very pregnant aunt walk through the wilderness alone. She trekked after her aunt, and Allie followed reluctantly.

After what felt like half an hour of stumbling over rocks and logs and roots, they arrived at a lopsided pile of bones that stretched out of sight in either direction.

Emma swallowed. "Are those... human bones? Real ones?"

"Probably," Aunt Daphne said breezily. "I never asked. But it means we're going the right way."

Emma and Allie both looked at their aunt, then traded dubious looks.

"I hate this magic stuff," Allie muttered.

Aunt Daphne gives Allie a fond look and says, "Your mom felt the same way growing up."

Emma wanted to press that comment further, but they'd gone through the bone pile, and the air felt oddly quiet. She felt like something was waiting, and she didn't want to wake it up, whatever it was. She followed her aunt in silence. Allie did the same.

Finally, after Aunt Daphne had started to wheeze from how far they'd been trekking through the woods, they reached a house.

Or, at least, Emma _thought_ it was a house. That was the best word she could come up with. It was really more of a collection of things that were shaped vaguely like a house. It was filthy, with broken glass and shingles scattered all over the ground around it, and the boards were falling off their beams, hanging at crooked angles and showing the inside of the house, which was shadowy and not very friendly looking. The door was cracked open, hanging crooked off its hinges. What Emma could see of the inside looked just as messy and significantly more creepy. Were those... _eyes_ on the floor?

"Oh no," Aunt Daphne said softly. "This is bad."

"So this is where we're supposed to be?" Emma asked.

Aunt Daphne nodded. "This is Baba Yaga's house. Or it was." She headed into the house.

Emma looked at her sister, a question in her eyes. Allie shrugged in a way that said 'we made it this far' and stepped gingerly over the doorjamb. Emma looked around the forest, still feeling like there was someone else there, and hurried after her family. At least in the house she wouldn't be alone.

Once inside, she almost threw up, and ran straight back outside to take heaving breaths against the wall. Those things on the floor? They were definitely eyes. And they weren't all that was awful in the room.

"Emma?" Aunt Daphne said, poking her head out of the horrible, _awful_ house. "You okay, sweetie?"

Emma swallowed and gasped out, "I- I'll be fine, I think, as long as I stay out here."

Aunt Daphne made some soothing noises and rubbed Emma's back. "I forgot you two haven't seen anything like this before, I'm sorry. If I'd known it would be that bad I'd have warned you. Do you want to go back to the car? Wait for us there?"

Emma thought about the oppressive feeling of the waste around the house, and about crossing the bone pile alone, and shook her head. "I'll just wait out here," she said faintly.

"All right," Aunt Daphne said, and she went back into the shack, leaving Emma alone with the trees.

* * *

The house was a wreck. Really, Allie could understand why Emma ran out all green like that. The only reason she didn't was because outside was just as creepy as inside.

It looked like a scene from some slasher movie, and it smelled just as bad as it looked. The contents of the room seemed to have been picked up and thrown about at random. There was a book hanging from a ceiling fan, and a pair of shoes in the sink. Everything was spattered with blood, and there were definitely body parts on the floor, including the eyeball Emma had almost stepped on that made her book it. If anyone lived here, they were probably dead, from what Allie could see.

Aunt Daphne came back into the room and said, "You're okay to stay? Do you want to go wait outside with your sister?"

Allie shook her head. "I'm okay. Let's just finish up here and leave as fast as possible." She didn't really want to leave Aunt Daphne alone in this place. Not when she was out of breath from just a walk in the woods.

"Go take a look in the next room, then," Aunt Daphne instructed.

Allie went to the next room, which was a tiny hideous bathroom that, while covered in mold, did _not_ look like it belonged in a horror movie. She poked around for a few seconds to make sure there wasn't a body in one of the cabinets and left again, closing the door behind her. When she turned back to the main room, Aunt Daphne was collecting the eyes into a jar.

"What are you doing?" Allie asked, wrinkling her nose. She wasn't even wearing gloves!

"We're going to need these," Aunt Daphne said.

"Why?"

"A witch's magic and her knowledge are stored in her eyes," Aunt Daphne said. "Baba Yaga only took them from the greatest witches. We're going to need that knowledge. And that power."

Allie made a face. "That's disgusting."

"You'll get used to it," Aunt Daphne said.

Allie swallowed, then reached down to help pick up the eyes. They were slimy and kind of squishy, but she didn't throw up, which was a plus, even if she _did_ throw up in her mouth a little bit. Aunt Daphne stood up straight with a groan, leaving Allie to the eyes.

By the time Allie had finished with the eyes, Aunt Daphne seemed to have finished with the house. Allie hadn't paid too close attention to what she'd been up to. She'd been too busy fighting her gag reflex and lifting eyes, which were really hard to pick up, as they kept shooting out of her hands.

"I don't think she died here," Aunt Daphne said.

"That's good, right?" Allie said, holding the eye jar up.

Aunt Daphne didn't take the jar, but she nodded. "It begs the question, though: where is she?"

"Hiding?" Allie suggested.

Aunt Daphne shook her head. "She wouldn't leave her house unless she absolutely had to. And her guardians are missing. So's the barrier spell. Someone obviously attacked her."

She bustled around the main room, picking things up and handing them to Allie. "Carry these to the car, will you? I'm going to leave her a note just in case she comes back."

Allie nodded around her teetering pile and headed outside.

"You were in there a long time," Emma said accusingly.

"Sorry," Allie said without meaning it very much. "Gimme a hand with these, will you?"

Emma took a few things from Allie's pile, grimacing at them. "What is all this stuff?"

Allie shrugged. "Aunt Daphne wanted it."

"Is this a coat?" Emma asked, picking the filthy thing up with her fingertips.

Aunt Daphne appeared in the doorway and said, "It is. It's your great uncle's. Lots of useful things in there."

Emma and Allie blinked at each other, but followed their aunt back the way they'd come. She was already heading off towards the car.

"Where are we going now?" Emma asked.

"Somewhere safe," Aunt Daphne said shortly. "It's time to find some allies."


	4. Rule 4: Collect Allies

**AN~ I know, I know. 'Curlscat you haven't updated anything in MONTHS and THIS is the story you come back with?' I'll update the ones y'all care about soon, promise. But _I_ really like this fic, okay? Allie and Emma are fun to write. (If I didn't mention the fact that people are going upstate to train, tell me and I will clarify things.)  
**

**Guest: I'm glad you like it!**

* * *

The hotel they stayed in that night was really, really fancy. Allie had wondered how Aunt Daphne could afford it until she saw just how empty it was. Then she decided they'd just cut their rates in hopes of getting any business at all.

Emma had no such worries about pricing, and she was just staring at everything- they had a suite, meaning Allie and Emma would get their own beds for the first time in nearly a month, even if they wouldn't have their own bedrooms. The walls were covered in white and gold wallpaper, a chandelier hung from the ceiling, there was a full kitchen (albeit a tiny one) across from the bathroom, and the chairs looked as comfortable as the ones in Aunt Daphne's living room.

"There's a _window seat_!" Emma squealed, shoving the curtains open. "Can we just stay here forever?"

"No," Aunt Daphne said, fiddling with something she'd pulled out of the ratty coat. "But we might be here a couple of days. I need to call a friend."

"What kind of friend?" Allie asked. "Like, a magic kind of friend?"

"Sort of," Aunt Daphne said. "You know her, actually. Or I think you do. Bunny, the mayor's mom."

"The blind lady?" Emma asked, wrinkling her nose. "What good'll she be?"

"Emma, that's really rude!" Allie said. "She's really smart, and you don't need to be able to see to be important!"

Emma shrugged. "It's not like could hear me."

"It's still mean."

"And," Aunt Daphne interrupted, "She used to be one of the most powerful witches on the planet."

"Used to be?" Allie asked, giving the jar full of eyes a slantwise look. "What happened?"

"She traded her eyes for Baba Yaga's help during the last war," Aunt Daphne said. "She probably saved all our lives."

Emma wrinkled her nose. "That's really gross."

"I know," Aunt Daphne said. "But it's a really big sacrifice on her part, and you should respect it. Plus she still knows a whole lot, and I need her help." She started dialing a number on her cell phone, going out onto the veranda (their hotel had personal verandas for every room, with little chairs and tables and plants) and closing the door behind her.

"Well then," Emma said.

"C'mon, she probably wants to be alone," Allie said. "Let her. I'm going down to the lobby to see if I can find a snack machine or something."

"Can I come?"

"No." Emma looked so crestfallen that Allie sighed and said, "Gimme a dollar and I'll get you oreos, okay? I need some space."

"Okay," Emma agreed, turning on the TV and rummaging around in her bag for some money.

Allie took the accepted cash, grabbed a key card, and left the room with a sigh. They'd been in really tight quarters the past few weeks, and the only alone time she'd gotten was when she was in the bathroom. It was time for a much needed break, now that she could probably promise Aunt Daphne that she hadn't gone anywhere dangerous. She wasn't planning on leaving the building, after all. She was just going to go to the computer lab she'd seen on the way in.

There was no need to be secretive. Really. Aunt Daphne never _said_ she couldn't message Parker, after all. And the last time she'd talked to him was weeks ago. He might think she'd broken up with him again. So what if Aunt Daphne had acted like contacting people wasn't the best idea? She was talking to that Bunny witch lady! Allie was perfectly within her rights to email her boyfriend.

Besides, she missed him. _Some people_ had social lives to keep up.

All right, that wasn't fair. Just because Emma didn't go out much didn't mean she didn't have friends. She was just... awkward. And young. Allie hadn't hung out with her friends all that often at eleven.

Allie swiped into the computer lab and headed for a hidden part of the room, where there were only a few other people. She followed the login directions and checked her email, which had, unsurprisingly, a _ton_ of unread messages. Oh gosh, what must her phone look like? She could kill herself for forgetting her charger for something that was taking this long. She opened the first message she saw from Parker.

It was a little desperate. He thought she was... dead, or something, or mad at him. But he was mostly worried about one of the monsters having gotten her, and he wanted her to write him back as soon as possible. She did, sending him a letter that was as reassuring as possible without giving away anything about her family being super involved in the stuff. He might not know about her grandma.

Oh please lord let him not recognize her grandma.

Allie set about replying to her other emails, and sent ones out to her friends who _hadn't_ sent her any, and checked facebook. Most of her friends seemed safe. That was good.

"What are you doing?" Emma's voice startled her.

Allie jumped. "Nothing! What are you doing here?"

"You were taking way longer than you should've," Emma said. "So I came to find out where my oreos were. What are you doing?"

"Emailing Parker," Allie admitted.

"Why're you making it a secret?" Emma asked. "Aunt Daphne won't mind."

"You sure?" Allie asked dubiously. "She hasn't let me call him or anything yet."

"Well she's calling plenty of people," Emma pointed out. "It'd be kind of hypocritical of her to not let you talk to anyone."

Allie rolled her eyes. "That's not all there is to it. You're such a _kid_."

Emma made a face at Allie and said, "Fine, be that way. I was just trying to _help_." She stomped off, leaving Allie alone.

Allie wouldn't have paid any attention, but she hadn't noticed that Emma had taken the key card to the room with her. Muttering fiercely under her breath, she logged off the computer as fast as possible and stormed back to their room.

"Emma!" she shouted, banging on the door. "Let me in!"

The door opened, but Aunt Daphne was behind it instead of Emma.

"So do you two want to explain what you're fighting about?" she asked, looking from Allie to Emma with raised eyebrows.

"Allie's a jerk is what we're fighting about," Emma muttered.

Aunt Daphne just stared at them.

"It's not a big deal, really," Allie tried to assure her.

"I should have expected something sooner," Aunt Daphne said with a sigh, sitting on the bed as Allie closed the door behind her. "I mean, you've been cooped up together for so long... But we need to hash this out, girls. Before Bunny shows up."

"Allie was emailing Parker," Emma started, and before Allie could chastise her sister for tattling, she continued, "And I told her you wouldn't mind 'cause _you_ were talking to people, and she was all mean and nasty to me just 'cause I'm not a _grown-up_ or whatever. Not like _she's_ a grown-up."

Aunt Daphne raised her eyebrows and turned to Allie. "And what's your side of the story?"

"I didn't think you'd let me talk to Parker, so I was sneaking," Allie muttered. "And she caught me and now you're gonna get upset and I just-"

"Why didn't you talk to me about it?" Aunt Daphne asked.

"Told you," Emma said.

Allie made a face at her sister.

"I didn't think you'd let me," Allie confessed. If they were getting everything out on the table, she might as well. It wasn't like she'd be able to get in _more_ trouble. "But like I miss him so much and I just- I didn't care if it was bad."

Aunt Daphne didn't look angry. She just looked sad. "I'm sorry," she said, sitting down on the bed next to Allie. "I know this is hard on you girls." She gestured for Emma to come sit next to her.

Emma came, and Aunt Daphne put an arm around both of the girls. This was so different than how either of their parents would have reacted that Allie was thrown off her footing.

"You've both just kind of been shoved into a life you had no idea existed," Aunt Daphne continued. "And I'm not saying anything about your parents' decision to keep things a secret- it's their choice- but I know it's not easy. In fact, I'm surprised you're handling it nearly as well as you are. So I want us to make a promise to each other, okay?" She paused, looking them both in the eye in turn. "We talk to each other. I'd have let you talk to Parker, Allie. But I'd have liked it if I could make sure nobody could trace the email to find us. So next time, ask me, and as long as I _can_ make something you want happen safely, I will."

"Okay," Emma said quickly.

Allie parroted her, more slowly. This seemed a little too good to be true. She wasn't even in trouble?

"Your safety comes first, though, so if I say no about something, I want you to understand that that's why," Aunt Daphne added. She clapped her hands together and stood up, turning to them. "I _am_ sorry things are gonna be hard for a while longer, but do we understand each other?"

Both girls nodded.

"Good," Aunt Daphne said. "Now, Bunny should be here tomorrow. In the meantime, let's have some fun, shall we? I think we're all about due."

Emma let out a whoop before Allie could say anything and shrieked, "I get to pick the game!"

Allie found that she didn't really mind.

* * *

Bunny arrived, dog in tow, at exactly eleven o'clock the next day. Emma wasn't really surprised, because Bunny was always punctual. Scarily so. Allie was in the shower, so Emma took the opportunity to sit close to the grown-ups and listen to everything that was happening.

When she _saw_ what was going on, though, she wrinkled her nose in disgust and wished she'd sat a little farther away. Aunt Daphne was _handing Bunny a pair of eyes_.

"I know you can't put them back in," she was saying, "but I thought you might be able to use them?"

Bunny nodded, fingering the eyeballs thoughtfully. "They're still intact."

Emma almost puked.

"Can you find her?" Aunt Daphne asked.

"Maybe," Bunny said. "It'll take time."

Allie came out of the bathroom, then, hair still damp but dressed in clean clothes and looking much happier and more awake than she had before the shower. She sat down next to Emma and asked, "What did I miss?"

Emma nodded at Bunny's handful of eyes and whispered, "They're talking about finding Baba Yaga."

Allie made a face at the eyes and stood up, heading back for the bathroom. "I'll come back when those are away," she said.

Emma didn't blame her sister, but she was too curious about what was going to happen to let whatever it was go on with her somewhere else. She'd seen very little magic since discovering it was real, and she wasn't about to let an opportunity to see more pass her by.

What she did see wasn't very exciting, though. Bunny held the eyes in one hand, the leash of her seeing eye do in the other, and Daphne held both her wrists. They stood still without saying anything, eyes closed.

Emma sat, waiting, getting more and more impatient. Nothing was happening.

Then the dog let out a whine, and Emma _noticed_.

It wasn't anything showy, but Aunt Daphne and Bunny looked a little more defined than everything else in the room. And there was this- buzzing, like a cross between a ringing in her ears and a bug flying just out of her line of sight. It had grown so slowly that Emma hadn't picked up on it at first.

"Magic," Emma breathed.

Magic, happening right in front of her, and not scary, dangerous, people-are-going-to-die magic. The real thing, the kind of thing she'd been hoping for when Allie got wings.

How cool was that?

... Except, she could do without the ear itch that came with it. She wondered if there was a spell to keep that from happening. Or if, like, earplugs would work.

All at once, Aunt Daphne let go of Bunny's wrists, the buzzing stopped, and the two women stopped looking like they were any more _there_ than anything else in the room.

Emma pushed back a bit of disappointment that nothing more exciting had happened. Magic, real magic, was cool enough that she could deal with it not being, like, bright lights and colors and loud noises. She could make enough of those herself, if she had to.

"Well?" Emma asked.

"She's alive," Aunt Daphne said, sounding relieved.

Bunny nodded, and Emma knew her well enough that, even behind the sunglasses, she could see that the woman was perplexed. "It's a bit odd, though," she said, proving Emma right (Hah, Allie, calling her unobservant!). "We can't pinpoint her location."

"Should you be able to?" Emma asked, feeling like she should know this already and repeating the words of her third grade teacher ("there's no such thing as a stupid question; asking isn't embarrassing; it just means you want to learn; it's brave to admit you don't know") over in her head until the voice in her head that sounded a lot like Allie and a lot like the know-it-all who sat next to her in class (stupid Alesha Gonzalez with her pretty black braids and shiny straight teeth and the way she always _knew everything_); the voice that was calling her dumb and oblivious.

All Bunny did, though, was nod. "We're coven," she explained. "Your aunt and Baba Yaga and I. We should be able to work off that to find each other."

"Coven?" Emma asked, emboldened by the fact that Bunny wasn't treating her like an idiot for not knowing things.

"Three witches who are bonded. It makes our magic stronger," Aunt Daphne explained.

"I was doubtful that ours would still work, but it seems fine," Bunny said. "You're still an innocent, Daphne, and I'm apparently still a witch."

"I told you," Aunt Daphne said, sounding just this side of smug.

"Are the eyes still out there?" Allie called through the bathroom door.

Bunny tucked them in her pocket. "Sorry, Allie! It's safe to come out now!"

Allie came out of the bathroom cautiously and asked, "So?"

Aunt Daphne explained, then continued, "We got a general idea of where she is. So someone's going to have to go look for her."

"Us?" Allie asked, her voice betraying no emotion.

Aunt Daphne shook her head. "I think that might be a little dangerous for you two, with no experience. I'm gonna make some calls."

"I could go," Bunny said mildly.

Aunt Daphne looked Bunny up and down. "Are you... are you sure? I mean, you can't- no offense, but you're blind, and it could be dangerous."

"Everywhere's dangerous, these days," Bunny said. "And now I have my magic back." She moved the hand in her pocket subtly, and Emma knew she was fingering the eyes.

"And no free hands," Aunt Daphne said pointedly.

"I can find her much more easily than anyone else."

Aunt Daphne apparently didn't have an argument for this, because she said, "I just... I'd rather you didn't go alone. I worry."

Bunny reached out and put her hand on Aunt Daphne's stomach, patting the obvious bulge there. "I do too."

Aunt Daphne grabbed Bunny's wrist and just held it for a second.

"I will take someone with me, if it makes you feel better," Bunny said. "William's been under Snow's feet recently, he'd probably like to do something active."

Aunt Daphne smiled. "That sounds reasonable."

"Good," Bunny said. "Now that that's settled, I believe it's lunchtime."

"Food!" Emma shrieked, jumping up off the bed and heading for the door, grabbing the room key on her way out.

Aunt Daphne and Bunny followed with a laugh.

* * *

Bunny was gone by midafternoon, and Allie figured they'd be heading out soon after, but Aunt Daphne didn't make any move to leave as the day wore on. She didn't even tell them _where_ they were heading now. Before, after all, they'd had a clear destination. Now, if they had one, Allie didn't know what it was. They were just sitting in their hotel room, watching the news.

They're replaying the interview with Grandma, interspersing it with 'new information' about Everafters. It's stuff Allie's picked up, for the most part, traveling with Aunt Daphne, but she can always learn more, and it's informative to look at a different perspective on it.

People are scared. Apparently, a lot of them are going to travel to Ferryport Landing to learn how to defend themselves or to be defended. Equal numbers are setting up survivalist bunkers or rioting. Allie understands all those reactions. But the riots- the world's messy enough.

And it really is the _world_. The Scarlet Hand is taking over _everywhere_. Allie's pretty scared too, when she lets herself think about it. Russia's overrun with something called Snow Lions, Brazil is being terrorized by giant birds that breath _fire_, Australia hasn't been heard from since a pack of Bunyips crawled into Melbourne, and there are dragons and ogres and spirit jackals everywhere- and that's just the things Allie remembers.

Aunt Daphne turns off the TV with an air of someone making an executive decision for the good of everyone, and Allie guesses that her fear was showing on her face until she notices that Emma is- Emma is _shaking_.

"Time for dinner," Aunt Daphne says definitively. "We all need something new to think about, yeah?"

"Yeah," Emma says, voice quavering.

Allie is stuck by guilt. She hasn't been thinking about Emma too much in all of this mess. She's been thinking about her parents, who are maybe fighting monsters, and definitely training other people to fight monsters. She's been thinking about Parker, who hasn't answered her email yet. She's been thinking about all the big scary things happening in the world. But her little sister is right next to her, and she's _scared_, and Allie didn't notice.

Allie's never been the best big sister (she's heard stories about her mom growing up, from her mom and from other people, and she knows that she definitely doesn't measure up to that level of big sisterhood- and her mom hasn't been trying to show she was good. It just sort of shows through in the way she talks about Aunt Daphne and Uncle Basil, in what she says, just casually, she gave up for them), but she thought she was better than this.

"Hey," she says, bumping her shoulder against her sister as they walk to the car. "You okay?"

Emma gives her a confused look and says. "Yeah. Fine."

Wow, Allie must've been doing a _really_ awful job sistering.

Before Allie can beat herself up too bad, though, Aunt Daphne hunches over with a wheeze.

Both girls rush to their aunt, who's bent double and who appears to have just peed herself, wetness leaking down the inside of her maternity jeans.

"Are you okay?" Emma asks, trying to hold the dark woman up as she stumbles and almost falls.

Allie pushes up on Aunt Daphne's other side as realization dawns on her. That's not pee. That's-

"My water broke," Aunt Daphne says. "Change of plans, girls. Dinner's gonna have to wait 'til after I have babies."

Oh gosh oh lord oh no Aunt Daphne's going into labor Allie is not ready for this nobody is ready for this Allie's gonna be a cousin oh no where are the grownups this is-

"Breathe, Allie," Aunt Daphne is saying, voice calm and rational. "I need you to hold it together until I get to the hospital. I need you to drive."

Oh. Allie's hyperventilating.

She breathes- in, out, in out, steady, slow- until she feels the hitching in her chest go away. Emma's giving her a terrified look, and Aunt Daphne is staring, obviously in pain, waiting.

She nods reassuringly.

Aunt Daphne nods back, and they get in the car.

Allie takes a deep breath in the driver's seat. She can do this.

In theory.

But she can't afford to think like that. She _has_ to do this.

They all need her to.


End file.
